Italy Winning 1-0 at Juventus in round 37, Milan is sure to finish in the top 4 of Serie A and make the loser lose hope of participating in the Champions League next season.
At home, Juventus had just 48% possession, but created more chances with 16 shots, three of which were on target, compared to Milan's nine and three.
In the 13th minute, Juan Cuadrado created the first chance with a right-footed volley from outside the box that goalkeeper Mike Maignan could not hold. Ten minutes later, Angel Di Maria shot over the bar from Moise Kean's cross. In the 32nd minute, it was Kean's turn to turn and shoot the ball to Maignan.
Juventus paid a heavy price for wasting their chances. In the 40th minute, Davide Calabria crossed from the right wing for Olivier Giroud to head the ball across the corner beyond Wojciech Szczesny's reach. This was the first time the French striker had reached 12 goals in a domestic season since 2016-2017, when he had 12 goals for Arsenal.
Giroud headed home to help Milan beat Juventus 1-0. Photo: EPA
In the first stage, Milan also beat Juventus 2-0 thanks to Fikayo Tomori and Brahim Diaz. Thanks to that, Milan defeated Juventus in both Serie A matches for the third time in the past 50 years, after 1990-1991 and 2009-2010.
More importantly, yesterday's victory helped Milan secure the final Serie A ticket to next season's Champions League. Stefano Pioli's team is currently fourth with 67 points, six points ahead of second-placed Atalanta, while Juventus is seventh with 59 points. The goal of the "Old Lady" in the final round against Udinese is to win to compete for a ticket to the Europa League or Europa Conference League with Roma and Atalanta.
However, coach Max Allegri believes Juventus should be proud of their 69 points in an "unusual season" in which they were docked 15 points, then had the penalty overturned, then were docked 10 points again with three games remaining. The Italian coach admitted that "the players were mentally exhausted and the season was over" after losing to Sevilla in the Europa League semi-finals.
Main events of the match Juventus 0-1 Milan.
Meanwhile, Pioli wants Milan to strengthen their squad to compete for the Scudetto and do better in the Champions League next season. "We need strong players to improve. I don't care if he is young or not, I like to coach young players, but we need more options," he stressed.
In the final round on June 4, Juventus travel to Udinese while Milan return home to host Verona. In addition to Napoli, Lazio, Inter, Milan, Italy could have a fifth representative in the Champions League next season, if Roma defeat Sevilla in the Europa League final in Budapest on May 31.
Line-up :
Juventus : Szczesny, Danilo, Bremer (Bonucci 83), Gatti, Di Maria (Milik 63), Cuadrado, Kostic (Paredes 63), Rabiot, Locatella, Kean (Iling-Junior 73), Chiesa.
Milan : Maignan, Calabria (Kalulu 86), Tomori, Hernandez, Thiaw, Krunic, Brahim Diaz (Pobega 82), Tonali, Giroud (Origi 86), Leao (Toure 82), Messias (Saelemaekers 56).
Hong Duy
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